2. Overview
Key definitions
Frederick Taylor
Henry Ford
Taylor and scientific management
The spread of Taylorism beyond the United States
Critique of scientific management
Ford and Fordism
Modern applications
3. Frederick Taylor – Background
Frederick Taylor (1856–1915) was born in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Trained as an apprentice engineer and studied
engineering at night school
Starting - apprentice, later - foreman and engineer at
Midvale Steel Company (1878–90)
Plant manager (1890–93)
Consultant (1893–1901)
Publicist for his system of scientific management
(1901–15).
Published works are Shop Management (1903) and
The Principles of Scientific Management (1911).
4. Taylor – claim to fame
Taylor worked in several factories before
becoming a consultant, installing his premium
piece-rate system and lecturing on what he called
the ‘scientific’ study of work:
Major influences on the development of modern
production management.
Founder - ‘scientific management’ movement,
through applying systematic, scientific principles
and practices to industry and society.
For Taylor there was only ‘one best way’ to
organise work and society – and that was his own
system.
5. Concept of ‘systematic
soldiering’
‘Systematic soldiering’ - the conscious and
deliberate restriction of output by operators.
Reasons:
1. Workers’ view- increase in output will lead to
redundancies
2. Slow work – self interest – poor management
control
3. Choice of work method – own discretion –
inefficient and untested
6. Taylor’s objectives
Efficiency – reduce ‘under working’ & increase
output per worker
Predictability – of job performance – dividing
tasks into small, standardised subtasks
Control – discipline through hierarchy and
policy decisions
7. Taylor’s main contribution
Taylor built on the principles of division of
labour and extended them into management
and supervisory labour;
Responsible for theorising the benefits of a
‘managerial division of labour’ or what Littler
(1982) calls the ‘bureaucratisation’ of shop-
floor management.
8. Taylor’s approach
Analysis –
job divided into elementary motions
Discarding non-essential motions
Determine quickest and least wasteful means of
essential motions
Describe, record and index these
Synthesis –
Determine proper sequence of motions
Optimal recombining of motions
Presenting information to employees
9. Scientific approach to
Shovelling
1. Select suitable job – variety but not complex –
employs many men
2. Select 2 steady workers
3. Time their actions
4. Use large shovels – heavy material – total amount
recorded
5. Shovel size reduced – weight decreased – total
amount rises
6. Best weight per shovel determined, correct shovel
size identified
7. Study actual movement of arms and legs
8. Science of shovelling – correct method for each
material and amount which should be shovelled per
day
10. Principles of Scientific
Management
1. To establish a science of production;
2. To select and train workers to achieve the
scientific working of production;
3. To apply such a science to operatives’ tasks;
4. To build cooperation between workers and
management to achieve common goals.
11. Taylor’s deal :
“You do it my way, by my standards, at the
speed I mandate, and in so doing achieve a
level of output I ordain, and I’ll pay you
handsomely for it, beyond anything you have
imagined. All you have to do is take orders,
give up your way of doing the job for mine.”
12. Replaces ‘Initiative and Incentive
system’
Workers given task to perform
Financial incentives
Initiative to complete the task
Which tools to use
Problems:
1. Craft secrets
2. Agreed production rate – below capacity
3. Non-cooperative
13. Taylor’s system
Divide foreman’s task into eight separate
functions dealing with work speed and repairs
‘Mental revolution’: more systematic division
between production, planning, recruitment and
selection, and rewarding workers
‘Work study’: accurate assessment of
worker performance
Detailed breakdown and timing of tasks
15. Merits of Taylorism
Greater cooperation
End arbitrary decision making
Plan and organise work
Worker motivation
Mutual gains for employer and employee
More careful selection of workers
Concern with friendly supervision
16. Criticisms of Taylorism
Taylor’s limited view of human capability, focused as it is
on a strictly ‘economic’ view of human motivation.
Subjective side of work neglected – personal and
interpersonal aspect
The strict separation of worker and manager, and the
polarisation of mental and manual work.
The essentially hierarchical (not cooperative) view of
knowledge flow and development.
Ignored psychological needs, drive to deskill craft
workers and degrade the nature of work (Braverman,
1974).
Functional foremanship – too complex to understand
His role as an advocate of the ideological empowerment
of management over workers.
18. Henry Ford
Henry Ford was an entrepreneur
Ford provided a practical example of the benefits
(for consumers) of mass production
Ford is associated with:
1. the ‘moving assembly line’
2. ‘flow production’
3. the speeding up of production and
4. reducing the costs of production by using capital
equipment and unskilled labour
5. high volumes in order to achieve economies of
scale
19. Fordism: Model T Ford
The early ford company was associated with
one brand, the model T
Between 1908 and 1927, ford made over 17
million model ts – more volume than all the
other car companies’ combined production for
the period;
The model T was cheap, standardised,
inflexible and robust;
It was the mass-market car.
23. Fordism as an industrial
process
Process of breaking down complicated tasks
into simpler and smaller tasks
skilled workers to be replaced by unskilled
workers.
Under mass production, not only the parts were
interchangeable, so were the assemblers.
Division of labor was carried to the ultimate
extreme, simplifying once complicated tasks to
the nth degree.
24. Standardisation
Standardization- hallmark of Ford system
standardize components, manufacturing
process and repair
This required nearly perfect interchangeability
of parts
Fordize "to standardize a product and
manufacture it by mass means at a price so
low that the common man can afford to buy it"
25. Single-Purpose Machine
Single – purpose machines called ‘Farmer
Machines’
No skilled operators required, only fast
workers
26. Significant Innovation
Introduction of a moving assembly line
This significantly sped up the output
lowered average production costs,
Profitable sale of less expensive vehicles
27. Assembly line
Each assembler performed a single repetitive
task within the line
The assembly line force workers to work at a
certain pace with very repetitive motions which
led to more output per worker
The practice of moving the work from one
worker to another until it became a complete
unit
then arranging the flow of these units at the
right time and right place to a moving final
assembly
line from which came a finished product.
35. Transformation from craft-based to
mass production
Fordism displaced predominantly craft-based
production in which skilled laborers exercised
substantial control over their conditions of
work
This helped create the market as we know it,
based on economies of scale and scope, and
give rise to giant organizations built upon
functional specialization and minute division of
labour
37. Key elements
Distinctive division of labor
Highly standardized parts and components
Machines are arranged in the correct
sequence required for manufacturing a product
Various parts and process are linked together
by an assembly line
38. Achievements
1913 – 90 mins for car assembly
1914 – 13000 workers produced 267,720 cars
(other car companies – 66000 workers
produced 287,770 cars)
1920 – 1 car per minute
1925 – 1 car every 10 seconds
39. Problems with the Human Element
of Production
Taylor’s methods claimed higher rates of
efficiency than Ford achieved.
Ford discovered his “labor problems.”
absenteeism: 10% a day
high quit rate (300% turnover in 1913)
soldiering and output restriction
unionism
immigrant culture
40. Problems associated
‘speed-up king’
Monotonous job – 1913 – hit by turn over
70% workers - ‘5 day men’
Solutions:
Work hours reduced from 9 to 8
Doubled minimum wage from $2.5 to $ 5 a day
Absenteeism reduced from 10% to 0.5%
41. Five Dollar Day: 1914
Prevailing auto worker wage was $2.40 /day
Ford promises $5.00/day if one ‘qualified.’
How did one qualify? Through an investigation
of one’s home life by the “Sociological
Department.”
Marriage proved
“Good home conditions”
Good personal habits
Demonstrated thrift
If single, must be age 22, for ‘profits’
42. Ford’s work
Ford built on and extended Taylorism
He took the ideas of task simplification through
an extended division of labour by breaking
down the production process into thousands of
separate actions performed by detailed
workers, called ‘operatives’ or assemblers
However, Ford did not use piece rates
43. Ford’s work
Both payment and production are decided
centrally.
High day rates (wages) came to symbolise
Ford factories and ‘Fordism’, for, as Ford
noted, ‘high wages make bigger markets’.
linking of worker to consumer:
Ford recognised the need to ensure workers
had sufficient wages to buy his products
Foundation of today’s society - system of mass
production, high wages and mass
consumption
44. Criticisms to Fordism
Destroyed craftsmanship and deskilled jobs.
Short-cycle repetitive work – worker alienation
and stress
Assembly line – invisible control line
45. Difference between Taylorism &
Fordism
Taylorism Fordism
Approach to
machinery
Organised labour
around existing
machinery
Eliminated labour
with new machinery
Technology and
work design
Took production
process as given
and sought to re-
organise work and
labour processes
Used technology to
mechanize the work
processes, workers
fed and tended
machines
Pace of work Set by his workers
or his supervisor
Set by machinery –
the speed of
assembly line
47. THE MCDONALDIZATION OF
SOCIETY
- GEORGE RITZER
Definition: the process by which the principles of the
fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and
more sectors of American society as well as of the rest of
the world.
48. Origins of McDonaldization
Max Weber’s concept of rationalization which is
a sociological term that simply means the
substitution of logically consistent rules for
traditional (or illogical) rules.
Henry Ford was the first McDonaldization
pioneer with his vision of an assembly line for
improving the production of automobiles. His
revolutionary idea dramatically changed how
many automobiles could be produced and was
very efficient.
49. The process of
McDonaldization
Take a task and break it down into smaller tasks.
This is repeated until all tasks have been broken
down to the smallest possible level.
The resulting tasks are then rationalized to find
the single most efficient method for completing
each task.
All other methods are then deemed inefficient and
discarded.
50. The result of McDonaldization
An efficient, logical sequence of methods that
can be completed the same way every time to
produce the desired outcome.
The outcome is predictable.
All aspects of the process are easily controlled.
Additionally, quantity (or calculability) becomes
the measurement of good performance.
51.
52. Four Main Dimensions of
McDonaldization
1. Efficiency
2. Calculability
3. Predictability
4. Control
53. Efficiency
The optimum method of completing a task.
The rational determination of the best mode of
production.
Individuality is not allowed.
In a McDonaldized society, efficiency is thrust
upon a person, so instead of choosing your
own methods of efficiency, you are forced to
accept the efficiency of the surrounding
institutions.
54. Calculability
Assessment of outcomes based on quantifiable
rather than subjective criteria.
Quantity over quality.
Ritzer goes on to point out that this emphasis
leads to the erroneous conclusion that more is
better.
If there is a lot of a product then it must be good.
This is why we "super size" our "Double" Big
Mac "extra" value meal. It is thought of as a
better product.
55. Predictability
The production process is organized to
guarantee uniformity of product and
standardized outcomes.
All shopping malls begin to look the same and
all highway exits have the same assortment of
businesses.
This has a two-fold effect.
It makes the experience of the consumer the same at
every location of a McDonaldized company.
It also makes the work routine for the employees of
that company.
56. Control
The substitution of more predictable non-human
labor for human labor, either through automation
or the deskilling of the work force.
Ritzer's focus involves control through the
substitution of non-human for human
technology.
By making tasks repetitive and forcing
employees not to think, employers can maintain
a tighter control over them.
57. Advantages of McDonaldization
Wider range of good and services available to
more people in more places
Able to get what you want instantly and
conveniently
Goods and services are far more uniform and
consistent
Far more economical
People have less time efficiency helps
58. Irrationality
A side effect of over-rationalized systems. Ritzer
himself hints that this is the fifth dimension of
McDonaldization.
An example of this could be workers on an
assembly line that are hired and trained to
perform a single highly rationalized task.
Although this may be a very efficient method of
operating a business, an irrationality that is
spawned can be worker burnout.
59. Deskilling
A work force with the minimum abilities
possible to complete simple focused tasks.
This means that they can be quickly and
cheaply trained and are easily replaceable.
They can get McJobs but can they do anything
else?
60. Consumer Workers
One of the sneakiest things about
McDonaldization is how consumers get tricked
into becoming unpaid employees.
They do the work that was traditionally
performed by the company.
The prime example of this is diners who bus
their own tables at the fast food restaurant.
They dutifully carry their trash to friendly receptacles
marked "thank you."
The extreme rationalization of this is the drive-thru;
consumers take their trash with them!
Other examples are many and include: ATM's, salad
bars, automated telephone menus, and pumping gas.
62. Further Reading
Buchanan & Huczynski (7th edition), Chapter
14
Rosenfeld & Wilson (2nd edition), pp. 11–12
Handouts given
63. Past Questions
Critically discuss the main features of Taylorism, and how it influenced
Fordism and McDonaldization. (2013) or
Critically assess the view that McDonaldisation is merely a logical
extension of Scientific Management. (2006)
Critically analyze how the rise of modern management and its three
crucial processes relate to the work of Taylor and Ford. Provide a
comparative analysis of their perspectives. (2012)
Based on the work of Taylor and Ford and their common principles,
identify and critically analyze the use of classical management
techniques in the service sector. Support your arguments with
appropriate examples from one or a few modern companies of your
choice. (2011)
Outline the main principles of classical management thinkers, such as
Fayol and Taylor, and critically evaluate their relevance to
management in the contemporary business environment. (2009,2010) or
Outline the main principles of writers such as Fayol and Taylor and
critically evaluate the classical conception of management in the light of
more modern views. (2005)
